Cats That Look Like Hitler!
| Available in | English |
|---|---|
| Owner | Paul Neve |
| Founder(s) | Koos Plegt |
| Website | Template:Official URL |
| Type of site | Satirical |
| Available in | English |
| Launched | 2006 |
Cats That Look Like Hitler! is a satirical website featuring user-submitted photographs of cats resembling Adolf Hitler, dictator of Germany from 1933 to 1945.[1][2] The meme resulting from this resemblance has more broadly influenced cultural depictions of Hitler.
History
[edit | edit source]The site was founded by Dutchman Koos Plegt in May 2006,[3] on a whim after noticing a local cat whose appearance reminded him of Hitler.[1][4] In partnership with an early fan, the Englishman Paul Neve, the site was reworked into its present form,[1][4] attaining its peak internet virality later that year.[5] It was subsequently featured by several television, print, and other media vehicles across Europe,[4] Australia,[6] and North America,[5] including coverage in the Daily Mail and The Sun, as well as on The Graham Norton Show in 2008[7] and The Colbert Report in 2010, sparking further waves of popularity.[1][8]
The site was later run only by Neve. By February 2013 he had approved photographs of over 7,500 cats.[9] The website has not been updated since April 2014.
Meme
[edit | edit source]The website refers to the cats depicted as kitlers, a concept that has propagated to other online media, taking on a life of its own as an internet meme.[2][5] Most such cats are piebald black and white,[10] with a black splotch underneath their noses, much like the dictator's toothbrush moustache, and other features that suggest a typically stern expression.[2][4] Some have diagonal black patches on their heads resembling Hitler's fringe.[2][4]
Cultural commentary
[edit | edit source]Website
[edit | edit source]The site's mainstream media coverage mostly focuses on its comedic aspects.[1]:{{{1}}} In 2007, Mikita Brottman described the website as being popular due to "its appealing combination of funny pet pictures, audience participation (no dictatorship here), and the way it hovers on the edge of bad taste without going all the way."[4]
Gavriel D. Rosenfeld locates the site[1]:{{{1}}} within a post-2000 shift from "moralistic" towards "humorous" representations of Hitler, arguing this has the effect of "normalizing" the legacy of the Nazi period, that is, "overturning [its] perceived exceptionality" in historical memory.[1]:{{{1}}} He notes the site owner rejects accusations of "glorifying Hitler" by stating "it's entirely appropriate to reduce him to an object of ridicule".[1]:{{{1}}}[9][11]
Meme
[edit | edit source]Maren Lickhardt suggests that the Kitler meme trivializes Hitler by comparing him to a cat, that it may still have merit insofar as it deconstructs the Nazi regime's preferred self-presentation ('the virile aesthetics of terror'), but that this implication is undercut in turn by admiration for cats' stereotypically dictatorial bearing.[2]:{{{1}}} She attributes the popularity of the meme in part to viewers' familiarity with its componentsTemplate:Hsp—Template:Hspcats are a staple of Internet culture, and the Hitler moustache-fringe icon is also well-known.[2]:{{{1}}}
See also
[edit | edit source]References
[edit | edit source]- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 1.7 Rosenfeld, Gavriel D. (2014). "Chapter 6: Between tragedy and farce: Nazism on the Internet". Hi Hitler!: How the Nazi Past is Being Normalized in Contemporary Culture. Cambridge University Press. pp. 292–339. doi:10.1017/CBO9781139696449.007. ISBN 9781139696449.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Lickhardt, Maren (5 April 2018). "Katzen, die wie Hitler aussehen" [Cats that look like Hitler]. Pop. Kultur und Kritik (in Deutsch). 12 (1): 97–107. doi:10.14361/pop-2018-0112. ISSN 2198-0322.
- ↑ "Hitler cats!". Archived from the original on 2006-07-01. Retrieved 2006-07-01.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 4.5 Brottman, Mikita (7 February 2007). "Mein Kat". PopMatters. Archived from the original on 21 July 2008. Retrieved 6 August 2008.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Simon, Justine (2024). "Virality of #Chadolf #Kitler: Ambivalence in Chiaroscuro". In Valérie Schafer; Fred Pailler (eds.). Online Virality: Spread and Influence. De Gruyter Oldenbourg. pp. 121–142. doi:10.1515/9783111311371-007. ISBN 978-3-11-131137-1.
- ↑ Walmsley, Dan (2006). The Breakfast Show Live: A History of the Web (Television production). Australia.
- ↑ Cats that look like Hitler. BBC Two. The Graham Norton Show (Television production). UK: BBC. 3 October 2008. Archived from the original on 2026-05-21.
- ↑ Moos, Jeanne; Anderson, Brooke (28 July 2010). Cats That Look Like Hitler. Showbiz Tonight (Television production). CNN. Archived from the original on 30 December 2010. Transcript. Retrieved 28 July 2010.
- ↑ 9.0 9.1 Neve, Paul. "Frequently Asked Questions". CatsThatLookLikeHitler.com. Archived from the original on 3 October 2015. Retrieved 8 February 2013.
- ↑ "Researchers Find Why Some Cats Look Like Hitler". The Times of Israel. 9 January 2016. Archived from the original on 20 April 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
- ↑
Rebecca Onion (2015-02-15). "You know who else made jokes about Hitler?". The Boston Globe. Archived from the original on 2015-02-17. Retrieved 2026-08-11.
In the process of doing Google searches on Hitler, I kept getting a lot of image results that were startling...bizarre. Mashups of Hitler and Kentucky Fried Chicken...websites like Cats That Look Like Hitler, or Things That Look Like Hitler, which finds Hitler faces in inanimate objects....I got into that subculture on the Internet just doing what normal people do. When you’re searching for information about Hitler and the Nazi period, you turn up a lot of stuff that’s high-quality and substantial, along with a lot of dreck.